Saving Young Lives !

There was something unusual at a recent Canberra music festival that was very attractive for young  people.  The crowds arriving at " Groovin the Moo " encountered the usual bag searches at the gates but inevitably some drugs got through and the usual pushers were working the crowds.

What was extraordinary was the presence of a drug testing booth where scientific staff were offering to test illicit drugs to determine their purity.  The big risk people take when they buy drugs from unknown sources is what they may contain.  The drug pushers are only interested in making money and often the drugs offered are " cooked " in a home kitchen somewhere by an incompetent cook.

Between 2011 and 2015 there were 2145 deaths associated with  oxycodone, morphine, codeine, fentanyl. tramadol and pethidine while just 985 were caused by heroin.   In todays drug world, fentanyl is becoming more common and it is a hundred times stronger than morphine.  Added to the drug brew is it capable of producing an overdose - and  death.

These drug testing chemists produced interesting results.  Some tablets contained absolutely no narcotics at all.  The pushers were con merchants making a fast buck by deception.  Most passed the safety check, but several were potentially fatal and were destroyed with their owners acquiescence. This safety check was angrily condemned by the Police minister.

We adults are a perverse lot.  When we " party " we look for that same level of euphoria that teenagers are seeking, but we satisfy it with alcohol - from which young people are barred until they reach the age of eighteen.  Those same teenagers are famous for not obeying the orders or instructions of their elders - and yet we demand they simply say " no " to narcotics.

For many decades every event that attracts young people has a familiar fantasy.  Cops with sniffer dogs at the gate, conducting bag searches and patting down likely looking suspects while inside paramedics are treating overdose cases and ambulances are rushing them to hospital.  The law of supply and demand applies - and the supply people have long ago masterminded the tricks of getting their merchandise into events.

Are we being realistic in demanding those under eighteen abstain from both alcohol and drug stimulants by closing down checking facilities at future events ?  That is a challenge young people overcome by risk taking - and inevitably there are sometimes fatal results.  This drug testing event in Canberra did prove that many cautious young people will have what they bought tested before popping the pill - and putting their life at risk.

Perhaps parents need to adopt a different mantra when they suspect their children may be joining the party drug scene.  " Always have it tested first "  would be wisdom rather than an appeal for abstinence that they know will be ignored.

Those testing booths need to be encouraged rather than forced to close by legislation.   They are the last line of defence in the world of reality !